History
From PatchworkWiki
The following information is what is generally known about the patchwork universe. Not all characters possess this information but this is the accepted history as it is understood by long-standing inhabitants such as Jones the tavern-keeper. For current information please see the patchwork today.
Once Upon a Time...
A group of entities who call themselves Gods discovered or created an area of space they could control. To this place they brought small patches from a variety of worlds, each chosen for one particular person who had caught the interest of the Gods. Over time, more segments of worlds were brought to the patchwork and some of the original patches vanished, while others remained for long enough to discover some of the secrets of the universe. It was proven that time, space, and even death were all under the control of the Gods but their purposes in creating the patchwork remained a mystery.
Age of Heroes
The original inhabitants of the patchwork seemed to have been selected for exceptional courage and heroism. They explored the world, fighting monsters and demons, some worshipped the Gods, others were tricked by them and came to untimely ends, only to live again and begin new adventures. It was discovered that only those chosen by the Gods could travel freely across the world, although some managed to bring friends and family to some with them on their adventures. A prominent figure from this time is Jones the tavern-keeper. Originally a hero from a world filled with monsters, he developed his patch into a personal fiefdom and established a family and built a tavern for travellers.
Ring of Eight
Some of the more powerful of the people sought for a way to overcome the Gods and either control the universe themselves or escape it. At first this alliance included Jones the tavern keeper, but he separated himself from it at an early stage in the plans. The final group was composed of Sir Aggrayayne, a chivalric knight and nominal leader of the group; the Cardinal, a machiavellian priest who served as senior tactician; Dr Brainstorm, a scientist; Snark Sinistre, a wizard; Karl Groever, an archeologist with a scholarly bent; Pixel, a cat with an unusual ability, Smight, The Unbeliever, a military general and Alice Wong, a young woman from a patch with highly advanced technology. An interesting fact about this alliance was that some of its members were implacably opposed to each other: something that doubtless formed a factor in the group's plan of attack.
War Against Heaven
The ultimate plan of the Ring of Eight was an assault upon the patch they believed to hold the powers of the Gods: a place known as Heaven where people were transported when they appeared to die. The essence of the plan was that the allies and armies controlled by them would engage in massive slaughter while positioned so as to surround the divine patch. At the height of the battle the allies took steps, through murder or suicide (or in Pixel's case his natural abiltiies) to cross the impassable mist and bring their armies with them.
But the plan was fatally flawed since the source of the Gods power lay elsewhere and the Ring of Eight's patches all vanished shortly after the apparent deaths of the allies, and were not seen again for some time.
First Dark Age
Then there came a period of peace for the patchwork. Many of the powerful people had vanished and the ones that remained were those too cautious to venture far from home.
Age of Reason
At this point the Gods introduced a new group of patches. Unlike the people from the Age of Heroes, this group of inhabitants appeared to have been chosen for abilities in scholarship and education across a variety of outlandish disciplines. This included the arrivals of Dr Odom of the Museum, Jewel Hart of Maypole Hill, Captain Isobel of the HMS Justice and Liason of the Imperial Foundry. For the most part they were a courteous group, exploring the universe together and attempting to learn more of its true nature. However, there were a few patches with inhabitants so outlandish that their interactions were of a very different nature.
Axis of Good
It was some of these more unusual inhabitants who formed the most important alliances of the time. Lord Doomshadow, Trubshawe the Zookeeper and von Damme of Empire City agreed to combine resources against the Gods. A previous action of Doomshadow's had caused the patches belonging to the Ring of Eight to be reintroduced into the universe and the newly proclaimed Axis of Good were fortunate enough to encounter Smight, the Unbeliever: a member of the Ring of Eight who was able to tell the allies the history of the War Against Heaven.
After several abortive discussions as to how to combat the Gods the Axis of Good mounted an attack on a central God-controlled patch known at that time as the 'map room' (a version of this patch appears in the modern patchwork as the Hub). Von Damme used the engine discovered by Doomshadow to reorder the arrangement of the map, removing the Jones patch and attempting to remove or destroy the patches of the Gods. He was unsuccessful in the third case in part due to the arrival of the toon girl Abigail with an entourage of other children and Lady Doomshadow. However, when Lady Doomshadow revealed Mustardseed (one of Abigail's companions) to be one of the Gods, von Damme shot and apparently killed her. Dissent among the Axis of Good as to how to handle these events led to the fragmentation of the alliance.
Trubshawe is believed to have perished in an abortive assault on the map itself, Doomshadow succumbed to an outbreak of schizophrenia and fled the scene, and von Damme escaped, abandoning the remnants of the axis troops (including Smight and Yaroslav) to their fate.
Time of Tentacles
Unfortunately, since few of the current group of inhabitants were especially heroic, certain events passed unnoticed at the time which would later prove to have had dire effect. Digitalis, one of the less accessible patches had been harbouring an advanced lifeform with viral properties which cemented its control over the patch and began to infect neighbouring areas. The Kingdom of Ice, the Wizards' Warren and the Endless Blue all fell to the parasite. It then was able to use these powers to further infect the Rose Garden and Ex Machina.
As patch after patch fell to the parasite there were some who suspected that this was a plot by one of the more sinister Gods of the patchwork. Appearances by Justice Paine were accompanied by darkness falling suddenly over many of the patches, making the advance of the parasite more difficult to detect.
Second Dark Age
As the activities of the parasite and the Axis of Good wrought havoc across the patchwork a number of places suffered ill effect. At the height of the crisis the Gods took action. A number of patches vanished once again, including all those infected by the parasite and those belonging to members of the self-named Axis of Good.
Time of Engineering
There then followed another period of apparent peace as the remaining population consolidated their strengths and cemented their new alliances. By this point a number of people had were engaged in modifying the patches under their control, in same cases for defence, in others to enable lines of transport and communication. Some of the Gods were engaged in similar activities, most notable the Janitor and Peregrine, and constructs of divine origin became more common across the patchwork.
As the number of new patches began to swell once more, the Gods appeared to have adopted a new strategy for introducing patches. Non-human characters became increasingly common and a high priority appeared to be placed on the ability to adapt to rapidly changing situations. During this time individual Gods were known to greet people on entry and attempt to gain their allegiance and win them over to their own purposes.
The group of patches sometimes termed the periphery have an increasingly important role, appearing here and there within the heartland of the quilt before swapping places with other patches from the edge or new arrivals. It is only once all the periphery patches have moved to the edge that the quilt has been completely rearranged. In addition to the previously known periphery patches some new patches without apparent inhabitants have been observed: Sandcastle, Rockery and Meadow. The Hub patch, previously known as the Map Room, was extensively developed with new divine constructions and various buildings have been taken over by representatives of other patches.
Formation of the Tesselate
The most significant alliance of the modern Patchwork was the Tesselate. Following a conference at Jones' this was initially proposed by Karl Groever. It subsequently evolved into a common interest pact between powerful individuals most of whom exercise considerable control over their own patches. The original members of the Tesselate were Jones, Dr Brainstorm and Pixel. Father Michael and Dr Odom later joined the alliance.
Rules of the Tesselate are no killing, no stealing, no property damage, do not reduce the power of the tesselate, and all people are equal.
The core group of Tesselate patches are physically connected, linked by roads and a communications network. Members of the Tesselate also trade with each other, in goods and information, and Dr Brainstorm is willing to connect any Tesselate member up to his communications network. Tesselate boundaries are watched by a group of roving NPCs known as the Justice squad, who are capable of traveling between Tesselate patches.
Time of Travel
It became increasingly easy to travel across the patchwork by hiring riding beasts, making use of the station network or attempting one of the more unusual forms of transit across patches.
It also became possible to acquire maps and a travel guide from the tourist information centre in the Hub patch. Although the latter is somewhat whimsical in style, it does provide some help in identifying potentially useful areas.
Dr Brainstorm developed a telephone network linking the Tesselate patches and a the plaza area of Hub became a popular place for leaving messages for other travellers. A rudimentary postal service using parrots as letter carriers was attempted by some of the younger inhabitants but such deliveries as were made came about more by luck than skill.
The Doomshadow Dungeon Crawl
Jonestown, the patch surrounding the famous Public House, succumbed once more to the monstrous darkness which substantially changes the nature of the patch. While this darkness shadowed the patch other travellers noticed its designation on the maps change and the area was renamed 'Dungeon Crawl'. This ominious term refers to the denizens of the dungeon tunnels beneath the patch. The darkness denotes a breach in the integrity of the ground which permits the monsters to wander out of the caverns and roam freely above ground. This change in the nature of Jonestown caused tension among the members of the Tesselate alliance.
Time of Troubles
Justice Paine, the mysterious God most concerned with conflict, was been sighted in various places around the patchwork. It might be speculated that these appearances were linked somehow to the apparent death of Mustardseed. She is known to have appeared once more after her death but in such circumstances as to make it uncertain what her current state might be. Justice Paine was most significantly sighted during the Doomshadow Dunegon Crawl, an event that led to the reincarnation of two members of the museum staff and the disappearance of two children: Jessamin Jones and Suli the apprentice.
Exile Fail, a pale-eyed man who comes from the Tin Market, made himself unpopular in at least one of the patches and is regarded with trepidation by some of the inhabitants. As rumours of this behaviour spread scross the patchwork, the situation is complicated by the fact that Fail claims to be hunting a murderer. This individual is believed to be Liason, of the Imperial Foundry, but neither he nor his patch appear to be present.
The dragon Kalyndis was still viewed by some as a potential threat. However, he is known to be associating with the God Kao Sheng and appears to have made his peace with many of his former antagonists.
The villain von Damme, previously of the Axis of Good, is involved in plots across the patchwork. His location is unknown and whether or not von Damme is allied to any of the Gods or pursuing his own aims is uncertain.
In addition to von Damme and Liason, whose whereabouts are unknown, other significant persons appear to have gone missing. These include: Jane Jones, daughter of the publican Jones; Rose Briar, the innocent maiden who was the guardian of the Rose Garden; and Lord Doomshadow whose very identity is a matter of uncertainty. Peri, the God of the Terminus patch also appears to have vanished. Jessamin and Suli also vanished, shortly followed by Abigail's group of children - who are believed to have gone in search of them.
Divine disputes
There appeared to be shifting alliances among the Gods and while some seemed to be taking a back seat, others increased their activity. Justice Paine and Yarrow in particular were viewed with suspicion, while Arnora made an alliance with the Tesselate.
